Thursday 7 January 2010

Laura Marks and the theory of 'Haptic Visuality'

In Laura U. Marks's words, in the book entitled 'The Skin of Film' 'Much of intercultural cinema has its origin in silence, in the gaps left by recorded history. Filmmakers seeking to represent their native cultures have had to develop new forms of cinematic expression. Marks offers a theory of “haptic visuality”—which functions like the sense of touch by triggering physical memories of smell, touch, and taste—to explain the newfound ways in which intercultural cinema engages the viewer bodily to convey cultural experience and memory. Drawing on almost two hundred examples of intercultural film and video, she shows how the image allows viewers to experience cinema as a physical and multi-sensory embodiment of culture, not just as a visual representation of experience.'

I will be looking at Laura U. Marks at this point for her theory channels me into a direction in my research where I could think the medium and the end form of my project, that is V.J.ing in nightclubs, in deep dark rooms...

here's how I linked the whole:


1 comment:

  1. Great that you managed to get hold of this.. good as it is, I often wonder how does she substantiate the claim that this form of cinema allows vieweres to expereince it as a "multi censory emobidment of culture".. has she done research with the viewers? despite time well spent in dark cinemas, as a culture in fragments, are we really reconstructing our memories through these films? It is quite convincing theoratically, not sure there is much to support it emprirically.

    Glad you are blogging by the way.. i will be back

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